Mpiri, december 2008

Photo: Kaj í Stórustovu

The choir Mpiri is a Faroese vocal group located in Copenhagen. We are 13 young singers and started in the winter of 97/98, when a few of the young singers in the well established Faroese choir Húsakórið wanted to make a smaller choir, whose main purpose would be to sing new choir music.

It was Bogi Mouritsen and Marjun Hoydal who took the first step to establish the choir, and Bogi Mouritsen was asked to conduct. Soon they had gathered a small chamber choir, which was called Empiri. In the meaning ’learning by doing’ the name was chosen because the choir in the beginning had to start from zero. It was later changed to the funnier sounding way of spelling: Mpiri, which did not sound quite as academic. But also because the choir had developed since it’s faltering beginning to a very hard-working and ambitious choir.

Mpiri has had several concerts in the Faroese church in Copenhagen (Samuelskirken), in the Faroese meeting hall Føroyahúsið and in other central places for the Faroese environment in Denmark. One of the choir’s largest undertakings so far has been to organize the annual North Atlantic Choir Festival in ’99 for North Atlantic minorities in Denmark.

At the festival Mpiri performed the first composition by the young Faroese composer Tróndur Bogason, who has been connected to the choir since its beginning both as composer and singer and who to this date has made several compositions especially for Mpiri.

Mpiri in front of Samuels Church, Copenhagen 2002

Photo: H. Maxmiling – 2002

The choir has also commisioned and premiéred pieces by several other faroese composers, and performing new faroese music is one of the choir’s primary goals.

The early years Mpiri mostly had activities in Denmark and occasionaly the Faroe Islands. 2002 was the year of the first bigger tour. In 2002 we were on a nordic tour including Denmark, The Faroe Islands, Iceland and Sweden. Again in 2004 we were on a nordic tour to Denmark, Germany, Sweden and Finland. From 2004 to 2007, there was no big tours. We did however, we managed to go to Germany on two occations, Sweden once and the Faroe Islands on several occations. In 2008 Mpiri was commisioned to participate in performing the modern dance play Barbara based on a novel by Jørgen Frantz Jacobsen. Barbara was a project for the Saga Dance Company, which in hand were commisioned by the danish ministry of environment, to be the cultural part of the danish pavillion at Expo2008 in Zaragoza, Spain. Thus, Mpiri performed at Expo2008.

Barbara was set up again in the fall of 2009, when Mpiri and Saga Dance Company went on tour in Iceland, Faroe Islands and Denmark.

The tours and the commisioning of new music pieces is only possible due to our supportive sponsors.

Because we sing new and difficult pieces that need a lot of rehearsing, the choir usually has only a few performances every year and often spends several months on preparing a new programme.

Mpiri’s costumes are designed by the Faroese clothes designers Pau. The company is a new faroese company, which has specialized in making ecological clothes of natural materials, primarily the wool of the famous Faroese sheep.

Bogi Mouritsen conducted the choir since it’s beginning, but in august 2000, the famous faroese composer and conductor Sunleif Rasmussen took over the direction of Mpiri. From the spring 2003 to present day, Mpiri has been conducted by the danish conductor Gorm Larsen.

Read about our concerts in our Calendar section.